Fresh tomato for Rotten Tomatoes brand

Rotten Tomatoes has become a cult classic site for online reviews for film and TV since its birth in 1998, managing to stay in the limelight due to its topicality and comedic value. Sticking to a recipe that works, Rotten Tomatoes has been sporting the same logo since 2001.

Now, almost 17 years later, Pentagram partner Emily Oberman has developed a new logo, icons and colour palette for Rotten Tomatoes, in an attempt to update the visual profile of the site without taking away the elements that fans have come to know and love.

Rotten Tomatoes has swapped its ‘90s aesthetic for a cleaner, minimalist look that can translate better to on-screen views and social media icons, following the initiative of several companies that started in the ‘90s, such as Crumpler. 

When trying to modernise the identity of the site in order to stay current, fresh and appeal to broader audience, Rotten Tomatoes VP Jeff Voris’ top priority was to avoid losing the core of the brand. He says, “We are very lucky that we have more fans and more attention than ever before, and that’s a big responsibility for us. We know for a lot of fans we are the first place they go when they are trying to make a lot of entertainment decisions. We take that super-seriously and every piece of what we did in this redesign flows from that exact same point.” 

While the previous logo featured out-of-line typography and a palette of yellow and black, the new logo has been adjusted onto a level line, incorporating a colour palette of black, white, red, light yellow, dark yellow, light green and dark green. 

A short version of the logo has also been designed for efficiency by the orders of the digital age, as well as a new series of icons for use across the site as a rating system. A “fresh” tomato indicates a highly-rated film, while a “rotten” tomato indicates a low-rated film.

The new visual identity of the company is currently displayed on Rotten Tomatoes’ site and app, while later in the year, a full website make over is due.

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